Last night, I decided to go to a party. A free Party, organised by A-spire, who had taken over a grade two listed building that Leeds City Council had been able to afford to "throw away" for the last six years.

Come 1am the party was lively, noisy, but with no trouble, a good friendly atmosphere. Some members of the collective (which has been in existance for around 3 or 4 years now) were dressed as members of the clergy and handing out fruit and fruit juice free of charge.
People were twirling fire, and providing visual entertainment outside.
Cups of tea were free as were the available articles in the shop, there did not appear to be any use of hard drugs, but some of the party goers were smoking marijuana.

Come 3am the main sound system had arrived, and things started getting going, when the rumour spread like wild fire amongst those inside, that the police were outside.
Within five minutes panic ensued as police broke the door in spraying pepper spray onto some of the party goers.
The music was stopped immediately and people were unceremoniously herded outside, where policse had closed off the whole road. Traffic from people coming home from night clubs in the city centre could be seen building up and tailing back to the next traffic lights some 500m away.
There will have been in the region of 100 police officers in attendance, with 10 - 12 police vans.
Some had riot gear, and there were dogs in attendance.
If any one has any more information about how many arrests were made, or the charges brought against those detained please post it.
I had a friend bitten by a police dog, and as mentioned before pepper spray was being used.
What it all amounted to was a massive police operation, costing lots of taxpayer money, which was completely illegal in nature.
Squatting is a civil offence, not a criminal offence, and the collective were due to be evicted on Tuesday anyway.